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VERY easy children's skirt

January 25, 2013

For Christmas I just HAD to have matching outfits (link) for me and Chelsea so I came up with my own design for skirts and learned that making skirts can be the easiest and funnest thing to do for you and your little girl! The adult skirt might take a little longer because it's bigger, so if you're more interested in just making your little girl look cute, here's how...

Daughter Skirt

The directions for the daughter skirt are exactly the same as the adult skirt, but different dimensions.

You will need:

Skirt - 13" of skirt fabric

Ribbon - 3x45" of ribbon fabric (45" should be the width of the fabric at the store anyway).
Stitch Picker (or whatever you call that thing)
Thread, etc.

Step 1: Place the fabric, right side up, fold the top of drapery fabric under 2 inches, and fold another half inch under, like a hem. Pin in place.

Step 2: Find the center of your fabric, measure 1/2" on either side of the center and draw a perpendicular line 3/4" long.

Step 3: Unpin. Set sewing machine stitch to a close zig-zag to make 1/2" (or so) button hole. Zig-zag on one side of the mark, keep your needle in the fabric, twist the fabric around so you can make a parallel zig-zag stitch to the first line, and make sure that your two stitches do not touch, but are as close to one another as possible. PRACTICE ON A SEPARATE PIECE OF FABRIC FIRST!

Step 4: Use seam scissors (stitch picker, or whatever those things are called) to cut the fabric that's in-between the two zig-zag stitch lines. Repeat on second "button hole."

Step 5: Repin "top hem" (just like in step 1) and stitch it down. Straight stitch along the top edge of the skirt as well (the side that's folded over). The seam should be even less than a quarter inch away from the edge.

Step 6: Take your ribbon fabric and cut it to be 3x45" (45" is about the length of the fabric as is). Then cut that piece in half. So now you have two pieces that are 3x22" (approx). Fold in half with right sides together (hamburger style so you don't lose any length) and pin in place.

Step 7: Make a mark about two inches away from the end on one side of the ribbon.

Step 8: Sew using a straight stitch along the long side of the ribbon, and diagonally from the two inches mark to the folded-side corner. DO NOT close the end that is not sewn diagonally. Clip the corners and excess fabric where the diagonal is. Repeat steps 6-8 on the other ribbon.

Step 9: Turn the ribbons right-side-out using scissors gently to poke the diagonal corner out. Zig-zag stitch the open end closed, then finish off the ribbon by straight stitching around the whole thing.

Step 10: Use safety pin to move ribbon through the button holes so that the zig-zagged straight edge of the ribbon is lined up with what will be the back of your skirt. Pin it in place. Do the same with the other ribbon on the other side.

Step 11: Pin the right sides of the back of the skirt together and sew with a seam allowance of 1 inch all the way down the skirt. If it frays, fold excess of 1" fabric from seam, fold under, and stitch down (like a hem).

Step 12: Hem the bottom of the skirt, only using up 1/2" of fabric (I had excess so my hem is bigger than yours will be).

The last step is to put this cute little creation of yours on the best little creation of yours!